This is the classic source historical scholarship about Jedediah Smith and the fur trade era of the American West! It traces his beginnings as a young man of 23, and his explorations and business ventures until his death about a decade later. The appendix contains letters written by Smith himself about his explorations, and to members of his family. Well-researched and documented, it's a great book to dig into if you want to know more about how life really was in America's wild frontier during the early 1800's.